In a different discussion I was reminded of the VOR part.
In the oral, he pointed to the map and said "lets say you're in this area but you're not sure where, how would you find your location".
The area I'm in has some distinctive features, so I started with "First, I would climb higher and try some terrain association" I described the landmarks because I'm very familiar with that area.
He said "okay, what about the VOR, how would you use that". I said "Since I only have one VOR I would probably plug in one and navigate to it" (as one option) and explained how to do that. It's one of a few options. He got very upset again and said "NO you would plug in frequency..." then, went through the process of explaining radial intersection to locate, which I knew, but it wouldnt be my first choice of options, I just didnt get a chance to elaborate on all the ways.
Later in the check ride, when we did the VOR navigation back, we did some of the maneuvers and he got snippy and said "Lets navigate back via VOR, because I dont think you know how to use them".
So thats when I plugged it in, followed the radial back to within sight of the airport, called tower, got my pattern entry, runway, etc and he got upset that after that I let the needle go once I had the airport in site and was talking to tower.
Maybe my choice in how to handle being lost wasnt the order he preferred, but to me it seemed easier to fly a few minutes to a VOR vs getting out a pencil, drawing lines, tuning stuff in, etc while flying, but I dont think there's a prescribed order.
